Faruza

See the Making of Faruza photogallery!

Director Katariina Lillqvist is now shooting her greatly awaited new animation, Faruza. As most of her works, Faruza will definitely encourage heatful debates in many societies despite of it´s fairytale-like, gentle facade.

Faruza is a medieval story of an isolated island kingdom in the Red Sea, where the rulers abide by a strict law: the women must wear a copper mask from the day they turn twelve until the day they die. The law makes the lives of the island's fishing families difficult in many ways: The families can afford the mask only after several years of saving, and because they are weighed down by the heavy copper, the women can't take part in fishing on the stormy sea.

As her birthday approaches, Faruza, the daughter of a poor fisherman decides to rebel. In secret, she befriends the island's hated and lonely blacksmith, who has longed for a change in his life. Together the rebels escape to the joyous court of the pearl fishers on the neighbouring island. But Faruza's fate is to return to her home island where the women await her. But as it happens, the island's queen has also had her fill of the mask.

NOT ONLY A SHORT FILM

Katariina Lillqvist has also concrete plans, how to distribute the animation outside of the normal festival/television routine. In her own words:

”When FARUZA will be ready, my aim is to organize an alternative promoting tournee outside of the beaten bath. In addition to the major European countries, I am trying to find ways to travel to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan also. In contrary to the common beliefs, there are quite many open-minded local and international organizations (like Open Fund Society) who are doing great multicultural work in the area despite of the everyday problems.

By showing of this animation for various Muslim and non-Muslim audiences, my aim is to create an open discussion about the position of the girls inside the Islamic societies, families and educational structures. And I really hope, that there is a possibility to prepare way for the more open, tolerating attitudes towards Muslim girls, with or without veils, inside schools and neighbourhoods also in the Western Europe.

During the field work, I will use the same methods than we used with our previous multicultural project, the Mire Bala Kale Hin . It was an animated serie of 6 films, containing old Roma folktales, and with this project I was travelling many years in Finland, Czechland, Holland and in Belgium to create more friendly attitudes between Roma and majority children. The feedback of Mire Bala kale Hin was very positive, and for my big surprise, even the mobbing between other ethnical groups deceased while the pupils started to discuss about the issues behind. So, I have great hopes that also Faruza will make a little difference.

THE HISTORY OF THE FILM

I started to plan the project eight years ago while visiting Teheran. It was still during the regime of president Mohammad Khatami, and althought the atmosphere in the area was full of tension those days - the US warcraft was already taking off and aiming towards Baghdad- I had very inspirating discussions with my local colleagues and animation students. Those days, the Iranian intelligency still had big hopes for the more liberal future: even the risky issues like the position and legal status of women in the Islamic society were constantly topics of passionate discussions.

But dark clouds were rising rapidly: the conservatists got more and more power over Iran, closing down reformist newspapers and internet-cafes and even banning the liberal politics to canditate on parlamentary elections. However, in the spring of 2003, the dream of more tolerating society was still alive, and that was the reason how a story like Faruza was born.

My Iranian friends then constantly explained me how in the modern Islam world animation is one of the most popular and growing artforms- and how there is a huge need of educational animations dealing with the issues of gender equality. They also believed, that through the form of metaphorical stories we can even discuss about sensitive issues like veils/chadors without mentioning the symbol itself.

But despite of the needs of the young generation, the cencorship system often makes production of this kind of reformist animations impossible in the Islamic countries, so the best possibility to create a discussion is to produce the films abroad and later bring them back for the local audience in a way or another. I promised to do my best, and together we found this touching little gem from the shadows of history.

We managed to be in touch via occasional e-mails untill the spring of 2005 ; then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came into power and after that, a long silence occurred. With a heavy heart I later heard about the student riots of 2009, and when looking the pressphotos of the wounded, unveiled girls from the streets of Teheran, I really wanted to keep my promise to bring Faruza back to them someday.

THE IMPACT OF FARUZA

"To create positive, strong Muslim girl characters in animation will make a huge impact on the self-esteem and self-evaluation of the entire generation of the girls now growing up with extreme difficulties of showing out their feminine identity. The girls of Afghanistan are sometimes paying for their desire to study with their own lifes while their peers in Iran are put into the state prisons after they have opened their mouth to critizise the regime of president Ahmadinejad.

Inside the EU, the Muslim girls are facing hard times when trying to balance between the old family values and the new society which, like in France, gives it´s own orders on whether it is appropiate or not to use chador or scarf at all. So, years after my Teheran experiences I finally will have the animation ready by May 2011 and I am convinced, that Faruza handles these strong issues of women´s and girl´s position in the society in a fairytale, gentle way. The film pays great attention to sociocultural details.

The island and the masks really existed once, the music is authentic and even the story of the neighbouring island was true: there was another kingdom where women were earning their own living with their jewelry-making skills, and they made a huge impression on young Faruzas life while travelling with their own ships all across the sea. With this little, devoted hand-made puppet animation I believe I will reach important audiences everywhere. I feel myself like an medieval story-teller: it is an essential part of the whole project that I will use my own person as a tool for the message, not questioning how hard the road will be. "

See also the Making of Faruza photogallery!

FARUZA GALLERY